Woman&#39;s top garment magnetic clip

ABSTRACT

A magnetic clip that attaches a woman&#39;s top garment to her bra at the midsection between the bra cups. The clip pulls the woman&#39;s top garment down onto the bra and the top garment conforms to the shape of the bra thus increasing the curves of the wearer. A ferric disc on the inside of the midsection of the bra is magnetically attached to a magnet on the outside of the midsection thus squeezing the midsection. A magnet or ferric decoration placed on the outside of the woman&#39;s top garment magnetically attaches to the magnet located on the midsection of the bra. The magnets are preferentially neodymium magnets.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of Invention

The improvement described herein pertains to the field of clips for clothing and particularly to products that enhance a woman's figure.

2. Description of Prior Art

Many clothing clips exist today. They often entail a two part pin clip system with one part presenting a pin and a second part securing it. The two parts are then placed on the opposite surfaces of two items desired to be clipped together and then the pin is pushed through both items. The pin is then anchored by the second part of the system and the clip attachment complete. This system is used for tie tacks and many other clothing items.

A second clipping system is the safety pin where a needle is pushed through a clothing article twice and then anchored to itself on the outside of the fabric. This system is often used for corsages and nametags.

A third system of less common usage is the magnetic clip. This system uses two magnetically attracted pieces. One is placed on opposite sides of one or two articles of clothing and the magnetic clip attaches to itself and grips the clothing. These function to magnetically attach the clip to the clothing article and do not directly enhance the article itself. Objects are mounted on the outside of the magnetic clip such as a ferric golf ball marker or other.

Mars in U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,451 (1998) & U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,760 (2001) discloses such a magnetic clothing clip. However the clip described includes anchors fastened to the outermost magnet for securing articles to it. The function of the clip is thus described as securing other display articles to the clothing.

Capparelli in U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,585 (2001) discloses a means of attaching an inner garment to an outer garment but the means do not include magnetism.

Jackson in U.S. Pat. No. 1,632,137 (1927) discloses an outer garment and bra attached with an integral releasable mating system for the purpose of supporting the outer garment from the shoulder straps of the bra. Only the bra strap is noted as connecting to the outer garment. Jackson teaches a mating system for the physical support of the outer garment without which he outer garment would fall off. No mention is made of utilizing the midsection of the bra as a connecting point nor of using the bra to contour the outer garment.

Good in U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,960 (1997) discloses a releasable magnetic closure system used to join two garments. The magnetic closures are integral to the garments and permanently attached with an adhesive. The mid section of a bra is never noted as a connection point and the purpose of contouring a top to an underlying bra is never envisioned. All of Good's magnets are completely encased.

Magnetic clips for front bra closures are known in the field. Lilly and others market such a bra.

Make Your Mark golf accessories has a clip on magnet that is suggested to be worn on a bra shoulder strap. A steel golf ball marker then may be attached on the outside of the outer garment thus leaving the marker readily available.

Magnets are also sometimes placed in bras for therapeutic reasons. The magnets are claimed to enhance circulation.

No clips are known to connect a woman's top garment to a bra midsection and none are known to do so for the purpose of conforming the woman's top garment to the bra. All magnetic clips use a two component magnetic system. All known clothing clips have an intended purpose of securing an independent article to the clothing so that the independent article may be viewed or utilized. No known clip utilizes a three component system to anchor two layers of clothing together.

SUMMARY

The improved magnetic clip described herein causes a woman's top garment to take on the contours of the underlying bra. This increases the contours of the woman's top garment and adds curve to the figure of the wearer. The clip is preferentially magnetic to aid in the ease of attachment and adjustability.

Objects and Advantages

Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the disclosed improvement follow.

No magnetic clip on the market today is known to connect a woman's top garment to a bra midsection for the purpose of contouring the top garment. The clip as disclosed is designed to accomplish this. The woman's top garment will be pulled onto the bra and conform to the contours thereof.

The clip is designed to be magnetic and thus can easily be attached and removed without the accuracy of placement required for pin style clips. The clip can be used for many different clothing combinations so that only a single clip can serve many outfits.

The fastener component of the magnetic clip worn on the outside of the woman's top garment could be a simple magnetic disc or a more decorative ornament including a magnet. The ornament could include extensions parallel to the mating surface of the magnet that would press the woman's top garment against her torso in areas other than just the mating surface. This would cause a larger area of the woman's top garment to take on the shape of the bra and thus increase the contouring effect.

The magnetic clip adds an option to detailing an outfit by adding an additional piece of jewelry.

The magnetic clip would preferentially contain small, powerful magnets. The strongest magnets currently available include rare earth elements such as neodymium or samarium. Magnets including these elements are often called rare earth magnets or super magnets.

Still further objects and advantages of the disclosed magnetic clip will become apparent from consideration of the following figures and their accompanying descriptions.

DRAWINGS

FIG. 1: Front Elevation of the Main Embodiment including a Bra with a Bra Fastener Component, Second Element Magnet.

FIG. 2: Side Elevation of the Main Embodiment including a Woman's Top Garment, Bra, and a complete Magnetic Clip.

FIG. 3: Front Elevation of the Main Embodiment including a Woman's Top Garment, Woman's Top Garment Fastener Component Magnet, and an underlying Bra.

FIG. 4: Section of the Main Embodiment including a complete Magnetic Clip.

FIG. 5: Section of a Bra Fastener Component including a shaped clip.

FIG. 6: Section of a Bra Fastener Component including an adhesive layer.

DESCRIPTIONS

FIG. 1. Illustrated is a front elevation of a bra 2 with two cups 4 and a midsection 6. Lines 8 represent the contours of the cups 4. A bra fastener component, second element magnet 10 is also shown.

FIG. 2. Illustrated is a side elevation of a woman's top garment 12, a woman's top garment fastener component 14, a bra fastener component, first element 16, and a layer of soft material 18. A complete woman's top garment magnetic clip 22 is shown.

FIG. 3. Illustrated is a front elevation of a woman's top garment 12 and an underlying bra 2.

FIG. 4. Illustrated is a section of the complete woman's top garment magnetic clip 22.

FIG. 5. Illustrated is a section of the complete woman's top garment magnetic clip 22 that utilizes a ‘U’ shaped clip 24.

FIG. 6. Illustrated is a section of the complete woman's top garment magnetic clip 22 that utilizes an adhesive layer 28.

Operation

FIG. 1. The bra fastener component, second element 10 is a magnet located in the center of the midsection 6 of the bra 2. Contours 8 illustrate the shape of the cups 4.

FIG. 2. An expanded view of the complete woman's top garment magnetic clip 22 is shown. The woman's top garment fastener component 14 is a magnet magnetically attached to the bra fastener component, second element 10 and woman's top garment 12 is squeezed between them. Bra fastener component, first element 16 is a ferric disc magnetically attached to the bra fastener component, second element 10 and the midsection 6 is squeezed between them. A layer of soft material 18 such as a felt is glued onto the inner surface of the bra fastener component, first element 16 so that the wearer comes in contact with it.

FIG. 3. The woman's top garment 12 has the woman's top garment fastener component 14 positioned on it. The contours 20 of the woman's top garment 12 assume the shape of the underlying cups 4.

FIG. 4. The complete magnetic clip is illustrated here in section with the parts as noted above. The four parts of the woman's top garment magnetic clip (10, 14, 16, & 18) secure the woman's top garment 12 to the midsection 6 that is in turn held snugly to the torso of the wearer with the elastic bands of the bra. The woman's top garment 12 therefore is held tightly to the midsection 6 and the woman's top garment 12 assumes the shape of the bra 2. This imparts increased contours to the wearer. The wearer is protected from the very minor magnetic flux of the bra fastener component, second element 10 by the shielding of a bra fastener component, first element 16.

FIG. 5. A complete woman's top magnetic clip 22 is illustrated here in section with parts as noted above. The bra fastener component, second element magnet 10 is permanently attached to a ‘U’ shaped clip 24. The ‘U’ shaped clip 24 then can be secured to the bottom edge of the bra midsection 6 to effectively hold the bra fastener component, second element magnet 10 in place.

FIG. 6. A complete woman's top magnetic clip 22 is illustrated here in section with parts as noted above. The bra fastener component, second element magnet 10 is permanently attached to an adhesive layer 28. The adhesive layer 28 then can be applied to the front face of the bra midsection 6 to effectively hold the bra fastener component, second element magnet 10 in place.

Conclusion, Ramifications and Scope of Invention

From the above descriptions, it is evident that the invention detailed herein improves upon the current art of accenting a woman's figure.

The magnetic clip emphasizes the wearer's figure by adding the double, rounded contours of the bra to the woman's top garment. This gives contours to a woman's top garment similar to a bikini top. Today's fashions emphasize the feminine figure and the woman's top garment magnetic clip furthers this emphasis.

Many any other permutations are possible than the main embodiment illustrated. Many variations on the sequencing of the steel and magnetic components of the magnetic clip are feasible. A magnet may be glued on the outside of the midsection or simply placed on the inside of the midsection after the bra is on. Then a ferric object or magnet could be placed outside of the woman's top garment and attached to the magnet inside. If a magnet is used on the outside of the woman's top garment, then the elements located on the bra could be of non-magnetic ferric material.

A ferric object alone could also be used inside the bra midsection or glued or clipped to its outer surface. Then a magnet would be used outside of the woman's top garment to attract the inner ferric object. Also a ferric object could be used inside the bra midsection along with an outer midsection magnet and an outer woman's top garment ferric object used to complete the clip. This would have the advantage of being less expensive than the main embodiment due to the use of one magnet instead of two. However this single magnet clip would not hold together as firmly as the two magnet clip.

The bra fastener component elements will preferentially be disc shaped with a diameter of approximately one quarter inch to one inch. The woman's top garment fastener component could be of similar size. All of the components of the magnetic clip would preferentially have flat inner and outer surfaces except the outer surface of the woman's top garment fastener component could be variable.

All magnets would preferentially be high energy magnets such as neodymium magnets. Neodymium magnets have a high energy to weight ratio.

Therefore the scope of this invention should not be construed to be limited to the few examples described herein, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents. 

1) A woman's top garment and woman's bra combination connected by a magnetic clip wherein the garment and bra combination includes: a) a woman's top garment; b) a woman's bra with said woman's top garment worn over the bra; c) said bra includes two cups with a midsection between the cups; d) said woman's top garment includes an outer surface; e) a magnetic clip connecting said woman's top garment and said bra together during wear wherein the magnetic clip includes; f) a bra fastener component of said magnetic clip includes ferric material and is positioned on and secured to said midsection; g) a woman's top garment fastener component of said magnetic clip includes ferric material and is located on said outer surface of said woman's top garment and aligned over said ferric material of said bra fastener component; h) at least one of said bra fastener component or said woman's top garment fastener component includes a magnet; and i) said bra fastener component and said woman's top garment fastener component releasably mate through magnetic attraction, whereby said woman's top garment and said bra are pulled together and said woman's top garment being more flexible than said bra thereby conforms to the contours of said bra at the location of said magnetic clip. 2) Said magnetic clip of claim 1 wherein: a) said midsection of said bra has an inner surface and an outer surface; b) said bra fastener component including a first element and a second element; c) said first element positioned on said inner surface of said midsection; d) said second element positioned on said outer surface of said midsection and aligned over said first element; e) both of the first and second elements including ferric material; f) at least one of said first and second elements including a magnet; and g) said first and second elements releasably mate through magnetic attraction, whereby said first and second elements squeeze said midsection and are thereby secured there. 3) Said magnetic clip of claim 2 wherein: a) said first element is non-magnetic; and b) said second element includes a magnet, whereby said second element has a magnetic flux that is shielded from a wearer by the non-magnetic first element. 4) Said magnetic clip of claim 3 wherein: a) said woman's top garment fastener component includes non-magnetized ferric material. 5) Said magnetic clip of claim 3 wherein: a) said woman's top garment fastener component includes a magnet, whereby the two magnets attach to each other. 6) Said magnetic clip of claim 1 wherein: a) said magnet is a rare earth magnet. 7) Said magnetic clip of claim 2 wherein: a) said first element has an inner surface; and b) attached to and substantially covering said inner surface is a layer of soft material, whereby the skin of the wearer contacts only the layer of said soft material. 8) Said magnetic clip of claim 1 wherein: a) said woman's top garment fastener component including a magnet; and b) said bra fastener component including non-magnetic ferric material. 9) Said magnetic clip of claim 1 wherein: a) said woman's top garment fastener component and said bra fastener component each including a magnet. 10) Said magnetic clip of claim 1 wherein: a) said bra includes a torso encircling compressive band; and b) said bra fastener component is secured to said bra midsection by a type of attachment selected from the group consisting of an adhesive layer, a ‘U’ shaped clip, and being squeezed between said midsection and a wearer by the compressive force of said torso encircling compressive band. 